The present invention provides for charging or billing telecommunications services in accordance with a level of service agreement.
Throughout the 1980""s and 1990""s, the types of telecommunications services and the means for transmitting the associated information content for the user have diversified. Examples of telecommunications services include voice, data, and multimedia services. A call path from a telecommunications user to another user can utilize either digital or analog transmission schemes with copper wire facilities, microwave radio facilities, cellular/PCS radio facilities, fiber cable facilities, or a combination of any of the above transmission media. The call path can utilize a plurality of call segments, each call segment being associated with a transmission medium. Moreover, the transmission configuration of the call path can be dynamic over a duration of the call. As an example, a wireless call establishes a radio connection from a mobile telephone to the xe2x80x9cclosestxe2x80x9d base station. As the mobile telephone traverses the service area, the radio connection is re-established to another base station that is xe2x80x9cclosestxe2x80x9d to the mobile. This trend of increased service and transmission diversity will increase in the 2000""s and beyond.
The corresponding benefit to the telecommunications user is great; however, from a marketing aspect, a service provider needs to charge the telecommunications user at a rate that is related to a degree of benefit to the user. Both the type of service (e.g. voice, slow-speed data, high-speed data, and video) and a quality of service (QoS) are factors that may be considered in the determination of the cost of the call. The prior art of billing telecommunications services does not provide the flexibility of adjusting the cost with respect to the quality of service of a call. In the prior art, typical billing procedures for data services is to adjust the associated bill according to the down-time of the assigned facility. The adjustment is specified in a service level agreement (SLA). Another billing approach of the prior art is to reduce the bill for calls that failed or xe2x80x9cdropped.xe2x80x9d The adjustment can utilize call detail records (CDR""s) to determine calls that failed and to reduce the bill by the cost of the failed calls. Alternatively, the telecommunications user can notify the service provider of the calls having an xe2x80x9cunacceptablexe2x80x9d quality of service. The service provider can consequently adjust the bill according to billing policies.
The present invention provides methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for billing a call in accordance with a measured quality of service (QoS) level afforded by the call. An adjustment of rating the call (for purposes of billing the call) is specified in a service level agreement (SLA) that specifies the adjustment in relation to a set of factors comprising the measured QoS level and a class of service that is assigned to a subscriber. The present invention utilizes the methods, the apparatus, and articles of manufacture to calculate the measured QoS level during the call according to a collection of measurements associated with the call. Comparing the measured QoS level with a defined QoS level that is specified in the SLA, an adjustment factor of the call is determined. A billing processor utilizes the adjustment factor for rating the call. Also, the present invention optionally delivers call detail records and the collection of measurements to the subscriber or to a third party for evaluation in order to verify billing by a service provider.
The disclosure of the invention includes several variations of an exemplary embodiment. One variation of the exemplary embodiment compares each measurement of the collection of measurements with a target objective. If all measurements are consistent with the target objective, the measured QoS level is equated to the corresponding QoS level. A second variation of the exemplary embodiment utilizes a data structure comprising a grading database and an adjusting database. A number that represents the collection of measurements is used to determine the measured QoS level from the grading database. The measured QoS level identifies a data entry of the adjusting database, providing an adjustment factor for rating the call by the billing processor. The present invention offers a flexible approach for billing a wide spectrum of telecommunications services according to the type of service and an actual quality of service that is provided to the subscriber on a call basis. In other words, the subscriber xe2x80x9cpays for what he/she gets.xe2x80x9d